Why you need to do a proper Keyword Research even before you start writing that post

A proper keyword research starts with understanding of how your potential target audience search especially around the things you want to rank for and why they choose the keywords they use for those search.

It’s like you trying to get into the minds and hearts of your target audience and knowing this will enable you attract the right audience for your site and rank appropriately.

In fact, this is SEO main function, which is to understand how people are searching online, what they are looking for and how best to deliver those information to them, which is why proper keyword research is very important. which will in turn bring the users you seek to the contents that you have on your site.

Getting Started with Keyword Research
From the above, you can easily disregard those spreading false gospel of keywords not being really important for you to rank today, that what matters most is the content that you’re putting out to your audience.

Whichever way you may see it, your keywords are important and knowing how to dig them out and use same will be beneficial not just to your blog and website but your business in general.

Now to get started with keyword research, or writing your site first post, you need to first answer the following questions

What keywords are mine website content/business targeting?

Who else is using those keywords.

How did they rank for those keywords

What Variants of those keywords do i intend to have within my site content and posts?

After answering the above questions, then you’re ready to start by heading off to Google’s keyword planner tool , using google search bar ( both for new sites/blog ) or digging through your existing site analytics.


How to carry out a Simply Keyword Research for your Post Article or Your Business.

1)First Understand your target users search intent
Eg a user might start his/her search with “How to build a website” which is a broad query, and then he/she will move to “How to build a website using WordPress” or “How to build an eCommerce website using shopify” from the first query which is broad, a user will become more specific and he/she is ready to take action.

So At the end of the day, your page/posts should not just anticipate that particular query users are searching for that relates to your site page/post, but other related phrases and synonyms that they might search for alongside it.

Eg if you’re writing about a generalist topic on “How to build a website” which will list generalist path towards building website and tools/knowledge required, you can also create different posts related to it on

“How to build portfolio website using HTML,CSS and JS”

“How to build community/membership site using WordPress” and “How to build eCommerce website using shopify”

And you can go ahead and provide further information on Domain registration, hosting, hosting/domain transfer etc

And then provide the above as internal link to the original post on “How to build a website”
Giving your target audience both broad and narrow specific options, means your audience will likely find you and when they do, they will also spend great amount of time on your site increasing your site dwell time.

Also recent research how shown over 27% of online users, uses question format for their search queries. Questions starting with

How Questions eg “How to build website using WordPress”

Why Questions eg “Why do I have sweaty hands?”

Where Questions eg “Where is the best place to live in Lagos in terms of power and security”

Then “Which” and “What Questions”

You can generate good content ideas from these prefixes that will have naturally flow of Long tail keyword


2) Then make a list of keywords/phrases and related themes you want your site pages/post/article/business to rank for based on the above

After working out what your users will likely search with around your target keyword, the next logical thing to do is to make a keyword list using any tool of choice eg Ms Excel .

Let’s look at another example say this post is about “On Page SEO” and basically I will want it to rank for that, then I need to come up with other related phrases/terms my target users are likely to search for relating to what I’m actually targeting so i can come up with phrases
like
“What is SEO”

“OnPage SEO Techniques”

“10 Actionable OnPage SEO Techniques you can use now”

“What is OnPage and OffPage SEO” etx

As possible related terms and phrases around "What is SEO " that i want to rank for, use some to of those to split and arrange the “OnPage SEO” article and use others to create different set of posts that will be linked together, providing my site visitors with complete material.


You can easily find related phrases around your target keyword by using google search bar. Just start typing your intended Keyword/Phrase and see the suggestion google gives you/related as search terms and the results that will show at the bottom of the page as the search related terms.

3) Research the “Related search terms” you found for your identified Keyword.
Go ahead and search again the related search terms found for your identified keyword or simply head off to googles keyword planner to see what more options it gives you especially the long tail versions of it.


4)From your list, set aside your page/post target keyword and do your site keyword map
After everything, you need to properly assign keywords to different pages and posts of your site and this is basically what a keyword map means. This enables you to work as a whole and not necessarily individual pages/posts of your site.

You will become mindful of what keyword is more suitable for this or that page and avoid duplicates keywords on your site pages and posts.


2018 Keyword Research Best Practices

1) · Don’t keep repeating your exact target keyword over and over again.

Repeating your target Keyword instead of its variant, worked sometime ago in the dark age of SEO but DOESNT WORK in today's SEO practice. The truth is that you don’t have to use the exact keyword that your post or page is targeting all over the place as this does not enable you rank higher especially with google new algorithms making sure pages with such repeats don’t cut the ice.

2)· Let your target Keyword flow into your post naturally

Just make sure your targeted keyword especially the long tail version of it comes into your content naturally and you spice up your post with variant/varieties/synonyms of your main keyword and letting them too come in naturally. This is possible if your post content is long enough with depth and breath.

3) .Emphasize your target/related Post/Page Keywords

The practice of bolding/emphasize your page/post targeted Keyword or related phrases with normal HTML elements like <b>Your Keyword</b>, <em>Your Related Keyword</em>, <strong>Keyword</strong>, is one that helps both your site human readers and the search engine robots have a full grasps of what your site content is all about SEO wise.


4)· Place your target Keywords and its variant at the right places

This is very important, starting from your page/post URL and to the first 100 characters of your content, your page title, page description, images alt and description tags and proper structuring of your content using <h2> tags including the closing sentences of your content.


5) · Pay attention to LTK ( Long tail version of your target keyword )

Long Tail and mid tail versions of your target keywords are difficult to predict, very specific, less frequently used ( use mainly at the tail end of users transactions decision ) and difficult to optimized but brings you more meaningful and actionable traffic.

You are more likely to rank for them and it attracts more traffic to you. if your post is normally long and deep and its one you have a commanding knowledge in, there’s a high possibility that you will natural infuse LT Keywords in your post which generally includes synonyms and related keywords of your page/post target keyword.


With all of the above i hope i have done justice to basic keyword research for your website and blog. You can read this trend i create recently on how to further expose your content to your target audience either here on Nairaland https://www.nairaland.com/4206168/5-things-make-website-more or on our website: https://doerstechnologies.com.ng/5-things-to-do-to-make-your-website-more-visible-to-your-target-audience

For the full details of this article head off to https://doerstechnologies.com.ng/keyword-research-101-how-to-conduct-basic-keyword-research-for-your-website-and-blog

By Rutherford Ejimonu
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FTC!!!!!

Something good is coming today

Nice

Nice post.

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Highly Educative & Informative

Nice

Good one OP's will implement this in a Fertility clinic website that I manage....

The site already ranked for some keywords but with this, it will do better

lala take this food to FP...

Bookmarked

MiguelKingII:
FTC!!!!!
Something good is coming today

We are waiting for it to berth bro....

RuddyFusion:
Good one OP's will implement this in a Fertility clinic website that I manage....

The site already ranked for some keywords but with this, it will do better

lala take this food to FP...

Nice to know that this will help your work, hope you share the result with us....

Nice one

Nice

Doerstech:


Nice to know that this will help your work, hope you share the result with us....

Thanks OP's I will

Doerstech:

We are waiting for it to berth bro....

BTW ur own wickedness dey 4 blood oo, nah u be OP na u cum steal FTC join

Nice write up
I blog at www.naijadailyfeed.com home of latest entertainment news and celebrity gossips

Nice

Nice one OP....comprehensive and detailed.

MiguelKingII:


BTW ur own wickedness dey 4 blood oo, nah u be OP na u cum steal FTC join

lolz

Nothing new jare, same cooked story I read online

dunmorris:
Nothing new jare, same cooked story I read online

Nothing New Under the Sun...Thanks for smelling the "Cooked Story"....it wasn't just cooked but Food for others.

Doerstech:


Nothing New Under the Sun...Thanks for smelling the "Cooked Story"....it wasn't just cooked but Food for others.

Others that are new to d game

dunmorris:


Others that are new to d game

Those that already knows everything need not bother themselves.... They need not talk either.

dunmorris:

Others that are new to d game

Ancient of Dayz

Nice post.

But a there is catch. Is keywords still powerful and effective in 2019 as they used to be?

Are there some changes in there application today?

Are there some keywords practices that are now been frowned at?

Find here

https://www.nazablog.com/what-are-keywords-how-powerful-and-effective-in-2019/